A Short Pilgrimage
To a Land of Sloping Shale, Dark Woods and Extendable Steeds I love driving north through Champagne. The vinyards peter out, replaced by wide rolling fields and finally steeper slopes and forest fill the horizon. The Ardennes*. There are too many trucks and tractors...
The Boy Who Grew Up and the Magic Laundry Basket
Or Believing is Believing I have a grown-up son. Naturally, this didn’t happen overnight although I am seriously questioning my notions of time and how it’s perceived. It won’t come as a surprise to other parents with grown-up kids that it DID seem like yesterday he...
King of the Castle
Or All About Illustrators, Illusions and Imperial Eagles I’m sure it’s no secret how much I enjoy the company of castles. In a former life, I’d happily imagine myself king of some regal keep - though it’s more likely I’d have been a beggar at the gates....
A Letter from Leipzig
Or A Few Thoughts From Somewhere Near Asgard I’m writing this in Leipzig, next to the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, quite content to be here, having set off across town unable to even pronounce the interminable name, even less remember more than one or two syllables. (My...
Ravens, Rhinos, Ruins & Rust
Or the Uses and Abuses of Documentation I have masses and masses of documentation. Likely enough to be convicted of collusion in the untimely death of a decent-size grove of trees. The wall behind the computer has a daunting set of shelves containing well over 100...
New Zealand – and Back Again
Or “There and Back Again” (Again) “There and Back Again” (as the title would tend to imply) is getting around a lot more than I manage to. After Comic-Con in San Diego, it will be shown and the 2nd DOCNZ International Documentary Film Festival, to will be held in...
In Search of Gormenghast
Or All About Grail Hunting: Means, Ends and Time Allotted For: My admiration of Mervyn Peake is no secret, and I’ve written clumsy but enthusiastic words of praise of his work before. So, you can well imagine, when asked to contribute a little text for a new book on...
Dear Diary (The Fully Illustrated Summer Vacation Collector’s Edition)
Or Pebbles, Thoughts and Shells (Collected But Unsorted) Introducing the low-calorie vacation newsletter. No high-carb contemplations, no deep-fried ruminations, no artificial sweeteners. Just light musings and lots of cholesterol-free photos. A summer diet, in sum…...
Summer 2007 in Saint-Ursanne
Or A Little Fantasy, But for Real This Time I get lost easily, and some places make me lose my way more completely than others. I believe in getting all tied up and involved with places, especially when the ties are those of mood, spirit or simply something in the...
News from a Far Land
Or the Fine Art of Displacement I’m writing this from Toronto. Not really a newsletter; a few thoughts from somewhere closer to and farther away from home. The one undeniable thing about one’s birthplace are those inescapable ties, whether we deny them or wish to...
Focusing
Or Opening Boxes in the Attic I’ve not been gifted with an organized mind. It is rather like an attic, (my attic, actually; are our attics perhaps accurate manifestations of our minds?) not very big, with roof beams I continually bang my head on in a moment of...
“Hold The Line, Please.”
Or Conversations from Outer Space Here is an exchange I recently had with a local newspaper: “Picture research, please.” “Speaking.” “Hello, I’m phoning about an image of mine printed in last Sunday’s paper.” “?” “You know, the paper you print on… well… Sunday. The...